Taskpaper archive as a journal base / plain text lasts longer

I quite like Dayone as a journal app. It is well designed and easy to use. I have been using it since October 1, 2011, and have 400 entries.

One concern I have is the increasing sophistication in Dayone with updates. This may sound paradoxical. Dayone has now added location, images, others.

I tend to prefer simplification. For example, plain text files are much better than Word files in my view for almost all situations. When I was young, people were still using WordPerfect and AppleWorks. Where are they now? There is longevity in simpler file formats. I worry that DayOne, like many apps, is becoming too sophisticated.

A simple journaling option is to use a TaskPaper archive as a base for a journal which, of course, is plain text. Completed tasks could be sent to the archive daily with an applescript and a paragraph could be written within the Archive detailing the day. Or, a journal entry could be written as a task, marked as done, and sent with all the completed tasks to the Archive. Later “@done” could be removed by a“find and replace all” (or a script) leaving each entry with the date in parentheses. This yields a text-based journal with your thoughts, feelings, and a log of completed tasks.